CHRISTIE, Agatha (1890-1976). Crooked House. London: for The Crime Club by Collins, 1949.

Presentation copy of the first edition, inscribed by the author to her secretary, amanuensis and close friend Charlotte 'Carlo' Fisher: 'Carlo from Agatha May 1959'. On more than one occasion Christie announced that Crooked House was one of her favourite works, if not the absolute favourite. ‘Of my detective books’, she wrote in An Autobiography, ‘I think the two that satisfy me best are Crooked House and Ordeal by Innocence.’ (quoted in C. Osborne, The Life and Crimes of Agatha Christie, 1999, p. 236). Hubin p. 79.

Octavo. Original red cloth, spine lettered in black (slight spotting to endpapers and adjoining leaves, spine sunned and spotted, head of boards slightly dust-stained, extremities slightly rubbed and bumped); original pictorial dust-jacket supplied from another copy (chipped and torn at head of spine with small loss, edges rather frayed with some tears and creases, small loss at ends of folds, lower panel a little rubbed and creased, head of spine with tape residue on the reverse). Provenance: Charlotte 'Carlo' Fisher (1895-1976, secretary, amanuensis and close friend of Agatha Christie; presentation inscription by the author on front free endpaper, and with Fisher’s posthumous book label).